Artajona - Navarra Media

Artajona is one of the most spectacular medieval walled towns of Central Navarre

Artajona is recognisable from a distance thanks to its medieval walls, the silhouettes of its battlements and towers, standing on a hillock from which the town runs down to the plain. Construction began on the medieval walls in the 11th century and was completed in the 13th, when construction began on the Church of San Saturnino. Saint Saturnin and Queen Joan of Navarre and her husband Philip the Fair of France are depicted on its portal.

You will come across emblazoned royal homes as you make your way down the narrow cobblestone alleyways, which will transport you back to the Middle Ages.

The Gothic Church of San Pedro, which underwent extensive renovations in later centuries (17th and 19th centuries), looms over the town. A magnificent Flemish triptych of the Epiphany is in the sacristy.

The devotion to the Gothic statue of Our Lady of Jerusalem, brought from the Holy Land by Saturnino Lasterra on his return from the Crusades, is a reminder of those medieval times. This tiny figure in enamelled copper – and the only example of its type within Navarrese precious metal work – is in the Basilica of the same name on the outskirts of the charter town.

The remains of the neolithic Farangortea settlement and the nearby megalith dolmens of the Portillo de Enériz and La Mina remind us that people lived in Artajona from ancient times. El Dorre settlement, to the north of Artajona, has evidence of being continuously occupied from the Iron Age to Roman times.
Artajona’s economy has been traditionally linked to agriculture, and livestock farming now plays a very important role.

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